Expert Bios
Harvey Charles
Dr. Harvey Charles was appointed the University at Albany Dean for International Education and Vice Provost for Global Strategy from August 2015 to December 2020. In this capacity, Dr. Charles provides leadership intended to help transform U Albany into a global campus in terms of its teaching, research agenda and strategic engagements. Prior to joining the University at Albany, Charles served as Vice Provost for International Initiatives and Director of the Center for International Education at Northern Arizona University. During this time, he led NAU to win the prestigious Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization and served as President of the Association of International Education Administrators, the leading association worldwide for university leaders of international higher education. In his long career in international education, he has also served as Senior International Officer at San Francisco State University, Wheaton College and Georgia Institute of Technology. He began his career as a university administrator at the University of Nevada, Reno where he was Director of International Student and Scholar Services and Associate Director of the Institute for International Studies. Apart from his deep administrative experience, Charles has published on issues including global learning, internationalizing the curriculum and comprehensive internationalization. He serves on a number of boards, frequently consults and gives addresses on international education issues in the US and around the world. Charles earned his doctoral degree from The Ohio State University in 1991.
Ron Cushing
Ron Cushing has been the Director of International Services at the University of Cincinnati for 24 years. He is responsible for serving the needs of over 5,000 non-immigrant students, faculty, and researchers. Ron has served as a mentor to over one thousand colleagues through his Fundamentals of Foreign Student Advising seminar, a three-day seminar for Designated School Officials that he has been conducting for 20 years. Ron has made well over 100 presentations at professional conferences, including regional and national NAFSA: the Association of International Educators (AIEA); the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC); the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC); the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AAOCRAO); Lorman Educational Services; Global Education Solutions LLC; and other organizations. Ron has been honored by NAFSA, Region VI, with the Leo Dowling Award of Excellence for his “compassion, integrity and leadership” to the field of international education. Ron is also a recipient of the University of Cincinnati’s “Just Community” award given to individuals for “outstanding contributions that promote the ideals of a just and caring community” and has been named of one the Communication Departments’ “50 Communication Alumni Champions” based on his success in his career, local community and support to UC.
David L. Di Maria
Dr. David L. Di Maria is Senior International Officer & Associate Vice Provost for International Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Prior to joining UMBC, he served as Associate Provost for International Programs at Montana State University, Director of International Programs and Services at Kent State University and Assistant Director of International Student and Scholar Services at St. Cloud State University. He is also a former President of the American International Recruitment Council and Chair of NAFSA’s International Education Leadership Knowledge Community. Dr. Di Maria regularly presents, publishes and consults globally on critical issues in international education. His most recent book is Achieving More with Less: Lean Management in the International Student Office. Dr. Di Maria earned a doctorate from the University of Minnesota, where he focused his research on campus services for international students.
Stephanie Doscher
Stephanie Doscher is a higher education leader who builds partnerships to facilitate global learning for all. She is co-author of Making Global Learning Universal: Promoting Inclusion and Success for All Students (Stylus & NAFSA, 2018), a comprehensive handbook for engaging all undergraduates in collaborative global problem solving with diverse others. She also hosts the “Making Global Learning Universal” podcast (https://globallearningpodcast.fiu.edu). Stephanie currently serves as Director of Florida International University’s institution-wide Global Learning for Global Citizenship initiative, is Program Evaluator for FIU’s Title VI-funded Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean National Resource Center, and is a Faculty Fellow in FIU’s Center for Leadership. Stephanie researches, writes, speaks, and consults on topics related to the internationalization of higher education, with particular focus on the relationship between diversity and the production and exchange of knowledge across borders. These include Collaborative Online International Learning, integrative curricular and co-curricular global learning, and transformational partnership-building.
Gretchen Dobson
Gretchen Dobson is a global engagement strategist, author and academic with 28 years’ experience working across six continents. Dobson advises CEOs, governing boards, embassies and policymakers on best practices in digital and other creative strategies and solutions that enable institutions, companies, organizations and governments to identify, track, engage, and manage relationships with their global stakeholders and brand ambassadors. Dobson is the author of Being Global: Making the Case for International Alumni Relations (CASE Books, 2011), the International Travel Handbook (Academic Impressions, 2014), has edited Staying Global: how international alumni relations advances the agenda (EAIE, 2015), and co-authored Engaging International Alumni as Strategic Partners (NAFSA, 2021). Dobson received her BA and MA from Boston College, and her EdD from the University of Pennsylvania. She holds adjunct faculty appointments with the University at Albany and Endicott College’s Graduate Schools of Education, and serves on the Advisory Board for the Executive Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Higher Education in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. She is based in New South Wales, Australia. For additional resources and commentary, see https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchendobson/
Karin Fischer
Karin Fischer is a journalist who focused on international education, including American colleges’ activities overseas, the globalization of the college experience, and study abroad. Her extensive reporting on international-student recruitment and the experience of foreign students in the United States has been collected in a special publication, Chinese Journey: Student Migrations, Family Dreams and What Happens Next. She also writes about U.S. higher education policy and the relationship between colleges and the economy. She writes a weekly global education newsletter, latitude(s), and her work has appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New York Times, EdSource, the Washington Monthly, and University World News. She also is a research associate at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California at Berkeley. Ms. Fischer is a recipient of the East-West Center’s Jefferson Fellowship and the International Reporting Project fellowship, both for reporting in Asia. Her work has been honored by the Education Writers Association, the National Press Foundation, and the Poynter Institute. She is a graduate of Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts. Ms. Fischer is an International Education Leadership Fellow at the University at Albany, and teaches a Special Topics course on Communicating International Education.
Clay Hensley
Clay Hensley is the senior director responsible for international higher education at the College Board. In this role, he leads strategic outreach to support the global engagement of international universities. Clay presents frequently on issues impacting international education & student mobility. Clay was awarded the annual Distinguished Service Award by the International Association for College Admissions Counseling (Int’l-ACAC, formerly OACAC) in 2013. Prior to joining the College Board, he taught English literature and studio art at Serramonte del Rey High School in Daly City, California. He also taught at the university level. He holds a BA in English from Vanderbilt University and an MFA in painting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
George F. Kacenga
George F. Kacenga, PhD, has been a champion for the value of international higher education for over twenty-years. He is currently the AVP of University Partnerships with M Square Media. Kacenga has served as a Senior International Officer (SIO) working with intensive English programs, international recruitment, immigration, education abroad, and global partnerships throughout a career that includes positions with public, private, and highly ranked academic institutions. Also a Fulbright Administrator Award recipient, Kacenga holds a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction, and a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in Social and Comparative Analysis in Education. His expertise and reputation have been further honed through engagement as a community member, including professional roles and participation in AIRC (Past-President), NAFSA, TAICEP, NACAC, AACRAO, AIEA, and FEA.
Mitch Leventhal
Dr. Mitch Leventhal (Ph.D. University of Chicago) is Professor of Professional Practice & Entrepreneurship. Prior to his current appointment, Leventhal served as Vice Chancellor for Global Affairs at the SUNY system administration. An international leader in the area of global higher education management, Dr. Leventhal has been an advocate for reform of US recruiting practice, development of new financing paradigms in support of internationalization, creation of improved technical systems to support comprehensive internationalization, and deeper and more creative approaches to engagement with corporate partners. Dr. Leventhal is a co-founder and past president of the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC), a standard development organization which has developed the first rigorous certification process for international student recruitment agencies. He also has served as Senior Advisor on Academic Affairs to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), where he headed a global academic working group which is developing an implementation and reporting framework so that higher education institutions can adopt UNGC principles with the same efficacy as corporations. Prior to his arrival at SUNY, Leventhal served as Vice Provost for International Affairs at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Leventhal has founded several companies, including a global payments company which is now publicly traded on the NASDAQ and London stock exchanges, and another – a Yale University spinoff – which facilitated technology transfer between research institutions and the private sector. Mitch Leventhal’s higher education research interests include global strategy, risk management, private equity flows, entrepreneurship, and cross-border mobility. His doctorate was awarded by the University of Chicago, and focused on the development of for-profit medical schools and their impact on Caribbean development.
Josh McKeown
Dr. Joshua McKeown is an International Education Leadership Fellow in the program, and will be leading the Institute’s Crisis Leadership Simulation. Dr. McKeown has been the senior international officer at the State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY Oswego) since 2008. As Associate Provost for International Education and Programs, he directs international initiatives that have been recognized with numerous national awards, including: the Diversity Abroad Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion in International Education (EDIIE) award for Organizational Excellence; the American Association of State Colleges & Universities (AASCU) Award for Excellence and Innovation in International Education; the Institute of International Education (IIE) Heiskell Award Honorable Mention for Innovation in Study Abroad. He also has led the institution to multiple rankings in the top twenty in the Open Doors national ranking of U.S. students abroad. McKeown leads strategy, directs personnel and manages priorities for education abroad, international student and scholar services, international recruiting and campus internationalization. He directs a department with nineteen staff in the U.S. and overseas running over 80 study abroad and exchange programs in more than 30 countries, enrolling 400 – 500 students per year.
Jon Rubin
Jon Rubin was Founder and Director of the SUNY COIL Center from 2006-2017. He directed the National Endowment for the Humanities funded: COIL Institute for Globally Networked Learning in the Humanities (2010-13), which engaged 47 U.S. and international universities in COIL course development. He also led the COIL Center’s award program with the American Council for Education supporting Technology to Internationalize (2013-14), and directed the COIL Center’s Stevens Initiative project in the MENA region (2016-17) and launched the State Department funded US-Mexico Multistate COIL project which linked 18 Mexican higher education institutions with peer US campuses. Rubin previously was Associate Professor of Film/New Media at SUNY Purchase where he developed a Cross-Cultural Video course in which SUNY students co-produced videos with students in Turkey, Russia, Mexico, Belarus, Lithuania, and Germany. His films have been shown internationally and his Floating Cinema surprised viewers at waterfront screenings in the US and internationally. He received Guggenheim, NEA and Fulbright fellowships. Recently he created COIL Consulting (coilconsult.com) to support universities launching their own COIL initiatives. He lives in Brooklyn.
Nancy Ruther
Nancy L. Ruther is principal and founder of Gazelle International, a non-profit helping innovative university leaders break out and harness technology to expand access to high quality international higher education. She has guided the Connecticut Community Colleges internationalization effort with CT CLICKs modeled on SUNY’s COIL and other virtual exchange efforts. She also serves as Senior Fellow in Higher Education and Strategy with the Yale Women Faculty Forum helping re-energize their research-based advocacy program and faculty membership. In senior leadership with The MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University, she grew budgets from $3 to $40M, kept Yale in the winners circle with Title VI grants and developed degree and certificate programs, expanded language teaching, developed faculty and graduate student exchanges and collaborations, managed scores of visiting faculty and competitions for student field projects, fee-based programs as well as outreach to the larger K-12 and college education communities. She also has developed simple, effective approaches to assessing the impact of international higher education, with a particular eye to graduate and professional students. For expanding educational exchange and partnerships, the French government honored her with the Chevalier des Palmes Académiques. Her longstanding research and advocacy interest is the interaction of federal policy and the international capacity of the U.S. higher education system, especially the HEA Title VI Act impact on building and sustaining international, area and language studies in the curriculum and research agenda. Her doctorate is in higher education and public policy from the University of Massachusetts along with MS Agricultural Economics (Cornell) and a MPIA in International Affairs and BA Latin American Studies (University of Pittsburgh). In addition to teaching at Yale, Columbia and the University of Connecticut, she has worked as a consultant in overseas development and strategic management and as a management trainer and researcher in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Chile, Ghana, Pakistan, Portugal and Thailand among others. She began her career as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development serving in La Paz, Bolivia. She speaks Spanish, chats in Brazilian Portuguese and loves to say “hello” in any language! Dr. Ruther is an International Education Leadership Fellow at the University at Albany, and teaches a Special Topics course in Connected Strategies.
Bruce Silner
Bruce Sillner was named founding dean of the Center for International Programs in 2001. As the Senior International Officer (SIO) of the State University of New York at New Paltz, Sillner administers study abroad and exchange programs, international student and scholar services, international undergraduate admissions, the intensive English language program, the Institute for International Business and the Global Engagement Program. Sillner chaired the State University of New York (SUNY) Council on International Education, co-chaired the SUNY and the World implementation team and was a member of the Gilman International Scholarship Review Panel. He is the 2009 recipient of the Marita Houlihan Award conferred by NAFSA The Association of International Educators for distinguished contributions to international education and is a 2013 recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service. In 2009-2010 he was appointed as a Presidential Mentor by the Association of International Education Administrators. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Forum on Education Abroad. In 2015, SUNY New Paltz received the Heiskell Award from the Institute of International Education in recognition of efforts to increase the participation of under-represented students in study abroad. Most recently, he represented SUNY New Paltz in a delegation of twelve American universities selected to rebuild academic ties with Cuba. Prior to being appointed as the first senior international officer at SUNY New Paltz, Sillner developed and directed the graduate program in Second Language Education. He came to New Paltz in 1986 as director of the Haggerty English Language Program.
Yusuf Joseph Ugras
Dr. Ugras is a leader in International Education. He brings over 30 years of academic experience that includes academic leadership as well as teaching and research in Accounting, Finance and International Business Strategy. His academic leadership started with leading a very large MBA program at La Salle University that evolved into leadership of the School of Business. He then served as the first Associate Provost for International Education at La Salle University. As Associate Provost he provided leadership to international education policy at the university and chaired the International Education Team for campus wide effort to internationalize the university. He has held elected and appointed board positions at American Institute of Recruitment Council (AIRC) and University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). Dr. Ugras regularly presents and consults on International Education issues nationally and internationally. His recent international seminars took place in China, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Spain, South Korea, Switzerland, Russia, Turkey, and Vietnam. Most recently, he was invited to speak at Shanghai University in China, Galatasaray University in Istanbul, Turkey and at Moscow State University, in Russia. Dr. Ugras is currently an Associate Professor at La Salle University in Philadelphia, U.S.A. He also has a strong background in corporate training. His research interests are Strategic Decision Making, Business Ethics, Educational Programming and Leadership. He holds a Ph.D. in Accounting from Temple University. He has recently completed Value Investing Certificate and holds a Certified Management Accounting (CMA) certificate.
Brian Whalen
Brian J. Whalen is among the most well-known and influential international education leaders currently working in the field. Chief Academic Officer and Dean of Education at Atlantis since 2019, he served for more than a decade (2006-2018) as the President and CEO of The Forum on Education Abroad, the first Standards Development Organization (SDO) worldwide focused on international education. During that time, he oversaw The Forum’s growth into a leading international association, and formidable quality assurance organization for the field of education abroad. He is also an experienced senior international academic officer, having served in that role at Dickinson College and Marist College. A widely published scholar, Brian was founding editor and for many years the publisher of Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. During his long career, Brian has developed or overseen education abroad programs in more than 50 countries, has delivered dozens of presentations and trainings in the U.S. and many other countries, has collaborated to secure nearly $4 million in grants in support of international education initiatives, and has participated in high level meetings as a discussant on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Education, and the White House. Brian has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in literature, psychology, and comparative and international education at several colleges and universities including, Boston University, Lesley University, Brookhaven Community College, and Dickinson College. He holds an interdisciplinary doctorate from the University of Dallas in Psychology and Literature. Brian is currently director and advisory partner at Academic Assembly, Inc., a Dean’s Fellow at Dickinson College, and an International Education Leadership Fellow at The University at Albany.
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